Bathroom conversion from groundfloor to firstfloor

[KellyDeg]

Hi
This is a general enquiry & I would be grateful for any feedback.
We are in Hitchin, SG4, looking at buying a Victorian terrace with a groundfloor bathroom & moving the bathroom up to the third bedroom.
The bedroom is directly above the kitchen & lobby area which houses the airing cupboard & where the washing machine is plumbed in.
The bedroom is a good size, currently has a radiator in but no tank, boiler or anything like that so nothing would need to be moved
Any info gratefully received regarding approx cost & advice
Thank you

 

[kostello]

Absolutely doable... What are the implications of going to a 2 bed house from a 3 bed....
Cost for someone to do a good job with good quality sanitary Ware I reckon will start around £10k...

Plus whatever you want to do downstairs with the old bathroom....

Sent from my E2303 using Tapatalk

 

[chipmunk]

Do you want a loo in there too?
If so, where's the soilstack in relation to the third bedroom and could it be easily extended upwards and boxed in?
If you can do that it'll be a much better job than having to resort to a macerator IMHO

HTH
Jon

 

[blackrodd]

You ought to check if by losing the 3rd bedroom, if you will be losing any value reducing 3 bed house to 2.
I would guess and say you're better off with a downstairs bathroom and 3 beds.
You will need at least 3 plumber's conversant with current regs to have a look and price for you.
Try and find one that neighbours or friends will recommend.
You should be able to choose the suite and any tiling to get a keen price, don't let it appear you don't have a clue what you want
you will need to find the current stack pipe to extend if possible, and it will need to be vented to outside away from any windows etc, should you're current soil pipe be vented, each house should be.
Try and keep the hot, cold etc in one corner or pipebox would help.
I believe there are a couple of plumbers on here see what they say.
IF pipe feeds and services are to hand below as you say it maybe cheaper.
HTH Regards Rodders

 

[KellyDeg]

We would want a toilet in the upstairs bathroom.

There is potential to convert the loft for a 3 bed, although we only need a 2 bed & aren't planning on moving again!!

I believe it would be possible to run to the current soilstack as I know other houses of the same layout have moved the bathroom upstairs

 

[monkeybiter]

SWMBO is planning on me fitting a toilet in a first floor bedroom, however I would need to route waste from the centre of the house, initially I had thought a standard toilet waste might fit under the floorboards, but hadn't accounted for lack of fall, so macerator might be necessary.
Will you be fitting the loo on/adjacent to an outside wall?

 

[doctor Bob]

but hadn't accounted for lack of fall, so macerator might be necessary.

Make sure you have a good supply of rubber gloves in stock.............. good luck............ :lol: :lol:

 

[monkeybiter]

#-o

 

[sunnybob]

Maceraters do work, its the users that cause the problems (as long as its fitted the right way round, i once saw one that wasnt!!!).
Many people when using toilet paper unwind about a metre of it and then scrunch it up to use before putting it in the pan. maceraters cant cope with multiple lumps of wadded up paper, just as a paper shredder will jam if you feed too much at one time. And of course ladies products must NOT be dropped into the pan.

Educate the users to take only what paper they need, or even take several separate sheets and layer them, and the machine copes fine.

 

[Water-Mark]

I'm pretty sure (but not 100%) that a macerator is only permissible as a second toilet so you'll have to do a stack alteration.

Cost wise you'll need to get local bods out for that i'm afraid.

 

[KellyDeg]

Thank you for all the info! I am not DIY minded or capable AT ALL! & neither is my other half.

This was just a query whilst we are weighing up budgets & offers.

The toilet upstairs would be on an outside wall, I do know that much

 

[porker]

I've moved many a bathroom in houses I have lived in. As above the main issues will be soil stack and drains. If this can be done without too much trouble that would be good. I also am not a fan of macerators and sunnybob is right, they are fine usually as long as people don't put things down the toilet they shouldn't. Problem is usually guests who do something stupid. I had to deal with one where a joint had come apart (push-fit would you believe) under a floor. Never again.
The other issue is where you put the bath/shower as you will need to route the drain to the stack with a slight fall. Depending on the direction of joists, this can be simple or a real pain. With showers in particular a lot of modern trays are flush with the floor making the fall tricky if a long way from the stack sometimes requiring the floor to be raised. A couple of other things to be aware of, providing ventilation to draw damp air out if condensation will be a problem and water presssure. A lot of taps you see sold are for more modern mains pressure systems. If you have a gravity system you might not get enough flow.
If you are not doing this yourself get the quotes and the fitter will know about all these issues. I mention the kit just in case you are sourcing it yourself.

 

[Bm101]

I'd say an important point might be that you need to see where your drains are. Good chance they're outside your kitchen door or side alley somewhere on a house of that age . If that's the case then unless I'm mistaken you should be able to add a new soil pipe to your mains drainage externally. Thats the biggest drainage pipe to your main drains that carries away all the nasty stuff and it needs to be vented properly and all sorts. It might not be a complete nightmare so take heart. If you're installing above your kitchen there's a good chance you can add to the external waste system and not mess around with workarounds. Best scenario your plumber adds some pipework, your falls are right, (the 'quickness and angles' of how the waste is channeled away) and you might be looking to dig into an existing soil stack. Not bank breaking. Blackrodd (rodders) has it right, that's great advice. Post a few photos on here if you can. Learn all you can and only ever get someone to work on your biggest investment (your house) if you know they are good and trustworthy and despite the websites out there, I'd take a friend or neighbours tried and tested advice on a trusted tradesman everytime. If you treat it as arcane knowledge it remains a mystery. Treat as a system that you need to understand and you'll be there in no time.

 

[Bm101]

Beat me to it Porker.

 

[KellyDeg]

Thank you all so so much for all this amazing information!! I will feel much more confident sourcing a contractor now I have a much better understanding!!

Thanks again, really really appreciated

Kelly

 

[dickm]

Not really helpful, but when we were looking for our first house (Reading, 1966) a terrace house with upstairs bathroom and so 2.5-ish bedrooms was £3100, whereas one with the bathroom downstairs and so 3 bedrooms (but the rear one only accessible via the middle one) was "only" £3000.
And the one we ended up in leaked like the proverbial sieve.

 

[No skills]

Small point, get the floor joists looked at if you go ahead - depending on bath placement and condition/size of the joists you might have to strengthen what's there to be safe or even just avoid a bouncy floor. This isn't a given just something else to look at and budget for.

Hopefully your builder won't leave a bunch of live cable junctions under your bath - whoever did the one in this house certainly did.

Fwiw